The Maharaja and the Kingmaker: It's baptism by fire for Arun Jaitley as Congress fields heavyweight

The Maharaja and the Kingmaker: It's baptism by fire for Arun Jaitley as Congress fields heavyweight Amarinder Singh in a bitter battle for the holy city

It's baptism by fire for Arun Jaitley as Congress fields heavyweight Amarinder Singh in a bitter battle for the holy city.

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Asit Jolly

November 30, 1999

ISSUE DATE: April 28, 2014

UPDATED: April 24, 2014 10:42 IST

Amarinder Singh during his road show in Amritsar

Amarinder Singh during his road show in Amritsar

They couldn't be more different, and yet, in Amritsar's intensely electrified electoral landscape, they are evenly matched.

Early on April 10, Amarinder Singh and Arun Jaitley shook hands during a 'morning walk' to mingle with voters at Company Bagh. The beaming smiles appeared to belie the virulence of their mutual diatribe over a fortnight into the blistering battle for the Sikh holy city. Past the brief moment of gentlemanly geniality and a morning cuppa at the Giani Tea Stall, both leaders quickly regressed to their diurnal routine of taking acerbic potshots at each other.

Winding down his campaign for the day at Sau-footi Road (100-foot road), a predominantly Hindu enclave on the southern outskirts of Amritsar, on April 13, Jaitley alludes to his rival's widely publicised penchant for the 'good life'. "Candidate da charitra ki hai, dekh lena (Consider the candidate's character)," he exhorts voters in the characteristic staccato Punjabi of a Dilliwallah. Attired impeccably in a saffron silk kurta and Aligarhi pyjamas, the lawyer from Delhi looks on intently in agreement as a party man likens the 72-year-old Singh to "an overfed and wayward buffalo that would never be seen in the city if he wins the election". Two days earlier, Singh dubbed Jaitley a man of "questionably low intelligence levels" with "no notion of the problems that plague Amritsar's residents".

As BJP's master strategist for many years and the man Narendra Modi repeatedly preferred to oversee state elections in Gujarat since 2002, Jaitley, 61, facing his first-ever Lok Sabha election as a candidate, senses a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a quantum career jump. "People here see the possibility of a Modi government and feel that if I am a part of it, then what they hope to see in Amritsar would happen much faster," he says.

At his inaugural poll rally near the Indo-Pak border at Attari on March 21, when Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal described him as "the future deputy prime minister or finance minister", Jaitley was all smiles at the prospect. It had all seemed within reach-a virtual cakewalk-with the Congress still struggling to name his opponent. But he was rudely jolted that very evening in the face of the suddenly looming presence of Amarinder Singh.

Borderline conflict

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi ordered the former Punjab chief minister to Amritsar in what is now one of the biggest prestige fights of the ongoing polls. He arrived in the city aware that this was no ordinary election-no less than Sonia's honour was at stake.

The Congress president's move proved to be a winner, both in rejuvenating the party's moribund state unit and provoking panic in the rival camp. But perhaps more importantly, it threw a big spanner in Modi's electoral effort by restricting a senior leader like Jaitley to Amritsar's municipal limits. "Barring a brief trip to Delhi at the beginning of the campaign, Jaitleyji has remained in Amritsar and will be here until polling on April 30," Janardhan, BJP's media manager in Amritsar, confirms.

Back in the rival camp, the swarm of hugely enthusiastic supporters that turned out to greet Singh when he drove into Amritsar on March 28 was driven equally by his charisma and a discernible voter fatigue with the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP combine after seven years in power.

Singh set about doing what he does best-challenging the ordinarily unquestioned might of the Akalis. "Who's scared of this bandar (monkey)?" he said, promptly taking on Bikramjit Majithia, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal's brother-in-law, Jaitley's chief electoral aide and the man whose writ in the Majha (territory north of the Beas river) is seldom disputed.

He seemed to strike another pulse among Mujhails (people inhabiting the Majha), in dubbing Jaitley as "an outsider foisted on the people of Amritsar" and repeatedly reminding them of incumbent BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu's unceremonious dismissal-a fact that rankles many Sidhu supporters who have chosen to remain aloof from Jaitley's campaign. That his 'good friend' and former cricketer too has chosen to stay away is not helping Jaitley.

People here love a rebel," says Kanwarpal Singh, convenor of the separatist Dal Khalsa. He says it was no coincidence that a majority of the young men who turned militant for the cause of Khalistan belonged to the Amritsar area. So is that the kind of sentiment Singh is hoping to tap? "Not really," he says. "All I'm doing is standing up against SAD and BJP's misrule in Punjab." Notably though, the former chief minister constantly reminds Amritsar's voters of his decision to quit the Congress to protest Operation Bluestar in June 1984. This, while recalling how senior BJP leaders like L.K. Advani supported the military assault on the Sikh shrine and accusing Chief Minister Badal of collusion. In a constituency where an overwhelming 64 per cent of the electorate is Sikh, Singh and his men are clearly looking to milk the fact that he wears a turban for all it is worth.

Rallying his available reserves to regain the ground he perceptibly lost on Singh's initial arrival, Jaitley now sneers at the latter's "outsider" charge. "I have a greater Amritsar connection than he has," the BJP leader says, claiming to have more than 40 local relatives and making regular visits to the city. Politically too, he points to his connect with Punjab, with Amritsar as his chosen base. "Amarinder may belong to Punjab but he's not from Amritsar and certainly not a politician who's going to be accessible to voters here," Jaitley told india today on April 14.

More than 300 "friends"-mostly lawyers and businessmen from Delhi -are in the city to boost Jaitley's election effort. Closer to polling day, Janardhan says there are plans to truck in hundreds of RSS cadres to engage voters in an Aam Aadmi Party-style house-to-house campaign in the five urban Assembly segments of the constituency. "We'll also bring in celebrities," says Jaitley's media manager. Bollywood star Suniel Shetty addressed poll meetings on April 12 and Sunny Deol, Kajol and Ajay Devgn are also expected.

But the real star who could swing things BJP's way-Narendra Modi-is slated to address a rally in Amritsar six days ahead of polling, on April 24. That, Jaitley is convinced, will be the clincher. "There is an unstoppable national groundswell for Modi. As the election date approaches, what appears optically to be a fight, will, in the end, swing one way," he says.

For the moment though, Amritsar is an even contest that has turned into a festival. Hotels are at near 100 per cent occupancy and lines at the historic Kesar da Dhaba have never been longer. Elbowing each other to grab a seat, Kesar's customers engage strangers in lively discussions on "who's winning". They, and we, will know on May 16.